How’s your prayer life? For many of us, it’s either a repetitive little petition we rattle off without even thinking about what we’re saying…or we simply forget to pray at all. This scripture says we must worship in spirit and in truth…we must come before the Lord with informed minds and kindled hearts…but how? By allowing the Holy Spirit to guide and direct our prayer time, He will bring people to mind that we may intercede on their behalf. When the Holy Spirit is leading our prayers, our minds have good knowledge of what to pray for, as our hearts are ignited by the love of Christ.
Author: kezha1
A Christian mother, grandmother, and retired nurse living in Illinois. Called into a ministry of encouraging others to find their ultimate plan and purpose in life through Christ.
Joshua 22:5 ” But be very careful to keep the commandments and the Law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to obey His commands, to hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul.”
It’s your first day of work at a new job, and how do you spend most of it? Reading and signing paperwork. There are contracts, job descriptions, and policies and procedures to review and sign. But as a Believer, you also have a job description for the work the Lord wants you to be doing here on earth. This scripture shows us we are responsible to so well represent the Lord, that if someone looks at us, they will only see the love of Jesus shining forth. Our relationship with God should be such, that our faith is never doubted…our love for Him never questioned…our worship of Him, uncompromising and pure. Yes, our obligation to the Lord is great…but not in any comparison to the reward.
Mark 7:14-15 ” Again, Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, ‘Listen to Me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean.’ “
The long-held Jewish Law was being turned upside down by Jesus in this scripture. He was in a way giving the crowd an Anatomy and Physiology lesson in explaining that nothing they could ingest would ever defile their hearts…their inner self. Rather, Jesus explained to them that it was what came out of a man…in word and deed…that degraded and profaned him.
Job 5:17 “Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.”
I can still remember one of my Nursing Supervisors in college. She would stand outside the patient’s room with you asking a million questions about the procedure you were about to carry out. Did you have everything you needed and were you well versed in what you were about to do. But right before you both walked into the room she’d say, “I will only stop you if you are potentially going to hurt the patient.” It was always said in a quiet, soft voice, but boy did it pack a wallop! Luckily, she never said a word during any of my procedures, and I gained a wealth of knowledge from that uncompromising woman. The Lord is the same way, His discipline is to educate us, not hurt us. It’s only when we reject and turn away from His correction that we suffer.
John 4:4 ” Now He had to go through Samaria.”
Jews didn’t associate with Samaritans, and any self-respecting Jewish man surely wouldn’t make a point of traveling through Samaria…but Jesus did. He didn’t have to plan the trip that way…most would have gone around Samaria…but Jesus didn’t. You see, Jesus had a divine appointment arranged for a woman at Jacob’s well…a meeting that would not only change her, but many of her fellow towns-people. The Lord is ever reaching His saving hand into places we’d probably never go…into prisons, crack houses, seedy motels, or dark alleyways…places where the forgotten, shunned, and hopeless live. But no soul is beyond His reach…no life is beyond His grace and mercy.
James 2:1 “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism.”
Deuteronomy 10:17 states, “God doesn’t show partiality and He accepts no bribes.” So as a Follower of Jesus, we should not either. When we allow bias to color our judgment…we are opening ourselves up to bigotry… prejudging entire groups of people based on one incident…or one person. God never favors one person over another…for He is always impartial and fair…and we should be also.
Joel 2:28 “And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”
While the ultimate fulfillment of this prophesy will take place at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ – it doesn’t mean none of these things shouldn’t be happening now. This scripture also demonstrates that God uses all of His people…not just the young, not just the highly educated, not just the inspired and enthusiastic, to forward His Kingdom here on earth. We are all called to be salt and light…to speak God’s message, in His name and under the influence of the Holy Spirit, to those the Lord brings across our path. That means you could very well be the Difference-Maker in someone’s life today.
I John 5:12 “He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
This scripture doesn’t mince words…you either have eternal life, or you don’t. You either claim Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, or you don’t. In this wishy-washy world where no one wants to commit or take a stand, it’s pretty black and white…you either believe in Jesus and have eternal life, or reject Him and have God’s wrath on you.
Jeremiah 9:6 “You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge Me, declares the Lord.”
The world’s deception isn’t blatant…it’s a sly twisting of the truth that may ring true in parts, but in the whole, is false. For the causal listener, it sounds fine…but is it really? The world wants to mislead, trick, and fool us…to lull us into a false sense of security that a loving God would never send people to hell…never judge people who go against His Laws…never pass sentence on those unwilling to recognize Him as Lord. The world’s deception has been a slow and insidious process…like a slow-growing cancer. What was taboo for our Grandparents is now touted openly…what was considered risqué then, is now in everyday commercials. Our minds have been slowly desensitized and deceived over the years by a twisting of what we should believe today as “normal”. But our God will not be mocked and soon all will stand before Him to be judged.
Proverbs 4:18 “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.”
Our journey with the Lord is just that – a journey. It’s not a stagnant, or stationary time in our lives when we just stand still… waiting. We need to be growing daily, pushing ourselves ever closer in becoming more like Jesus. And as we mature, we become established, full of Godly wisdom, and able to further the Kingdom of Heaven. For just like that first gleam of dawn, the light of God will shine brighter and brighter within us.
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